*** MILD spoilers, but nothing that should ruin the novel for you. ***

I had a lot of mixed feelings about this book, but in the end I really ended up liking it. A lot of other reviewers advised, "Pretend it's NOT written by J.K. Rowling!!" Which I tried, but just couldn't. It IS J.K. Rowling, and powerfully so.
The book is definitely an uncomfortable read. It was kind of shocking to have my childhood hero's writing include cussing, "shagging," and drugs. But it isn't just shocking because of what we're used to Rowling writing – the book covers a lot of dark subject matter: rape, drug addiction, sex, death, failing marriages, self-harm, mental illness, guilt. Also, for me, the book had this rather nostalgic feeling of reading the beginning of a Harry Potter book, where the Dursleys are terrible and awful but you know that soon Harry will be able to escape to Hogwarts where everything is great and happy! Not so in The Casual Vacancy. The Casual Vacancy is reality. There are terrible people and the characters have to learn to deal with them or get them out of their lives.

Set in the quaint little English countryside town of Pagford, the book centers around the death of Parish councillor, Barry Fairbrother. Right away you get the idea that Barry is some kind of ~saint~ to the local population, except maybe for jolly ol' Howard Mollison. Howard is delighted, because this means he can finally help get rid of the blight of Pagford – a housing development called "The Fields." Nobody likes the Fields, because what started as affordable housing ended up being a community of drug addicts and "layabouts." Barry fought to keep The Fields a part of Pagford, as well as keeping the addiction clinic, Bellchapel, open. Howard and his crew want to sluff off the burden that is The Fields onto the neighboring town.
Pretty much right away you get the idea that the adult population of Pagford are all kind of creeps, in their own way. Sure, a few of them have their good qualities, but most of them are self-centered and materialistic. This is only exacerbated by the contrast of Krystal Weedon and her heroin-addicted mother, Terri. Krystal lives pretty much in what we who watch reality TV would consider a "Hoarder's house." Beyond her crass façade, you discover a girl who's barely hanging on to the threads of a happy home life – Terri is barely human anymore, and can't really survive as a person without heroin. Krystal wants nothing more than to keep her little brother Robbie in her possession, which is hard because Terri can't even get out of her clouded, drugged-out state enough to take Robbie to daycare or change his "nappies." Krystal Weedon's life gives us a stark contrast to the people of Pagford, who's lives and worries suddenly seem petty. However, Rowling's talent as an author is proved great as she makes us side – or at least sympathize – with even the slimiest characters in the book. (How many of you remember feeling at least teary when creepy mean Dudley apologized to Harry in The Deathly Hallows??)
Rowling did a really great job of creating wonderful, multi-layered characters, most of whom I ended up having a love-hate relationship with. And although I think the book was very dark and not what I expected from Rowling, the characters' personalities and interweaved stories made the book very interesting and worth reading – not to mention the intense climax to the novel. I think for those of you who are afraid of reading this novel, you should at least give it a go. You might be surprised. Just remember, it's NOT Harry Potter! I'm not saying read it like it's not written by Rowling, but don't go into reading it expecting an escape into a fantasy world of happiness. It's definitely not an escape novel, but what it is, is an extremely powerful novel. I would definitely recommend reading it. ( )

I took a very long time to get into this book. Two hundred pages in I was still getting muddled between Shirley and Samantha, Colin and Gavin, and I still wasn't hooked. I did persist however, and things improved. This is a saga of small-town life worthy of Trollope or Dickens. Characters from every walk of life in this fairly idyllic little town get a part in the drama. Every one is a stereotype (working class slapper with a heart of gold; doughty, boring, conscientious teacher with no fashion sense; nasty, sadistic type who terrorises his wife and children - they're all here and more besides) and they're all pretty unlikeable. The drama that unfolds following the death of a councillor, as various factions jostle to get their candidate elected in the resulting by-election, is all too believable however. It's worth getting to the end to see how it all unfolds. But you may breathe a sigh of relief that you've actually made it there. ( )

If you liked Harry Potter, there is no guarantee you will enjoy this, because it is a completely different ballpark. The closest comparison I could make is Salem's Lot, because this book is fundamentally about a town.

Many, if not most of the characters we follow are not Good PeopleTM. They are extremely flawed, but Rowling crafts a compelling character-driven tale that makes you card about these people. The story takes a lot of dark turns and is not for the faint of heart, but if you are willing and able to tackle poverty, drug addiction, assault and abuse, death, and more - you just might find this a good read, as I did. ( )

Quite a soap opera. Almost every shocking thing you can imagine is shoved into this book. I liked up until the last two parts. ( )

Wow, Jo. This is hella grown up. Sex, drugs, rape, abuse, neglect, and local politics. All very sad topics. In a way, this novel reminded me of a nonfiction book I read years ago called [b:Random Family|385255|Random Family Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx|Adrian Nicole LeBlanc|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348194436s/385255.jpg|909535]. They're both about the causes and consequences of poverty, and how and why efforts to help the poor fail so often.

Of course, [b:Random Family|385255|Random Family Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx|Adrian Nicole LeBlanc|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348194436s/385255.jpg|909535] was entirely about poor people, but The Casual Vacancy is also about the middle class. This book's main villain is Howard Mollison, a hugely obese man who owns a successful shop and is the heavyweight(!) in the local political scene. I thought J.K. made him a little too detestable, but it was all leading up to a point that really hit home well, the scene where the fat man is decrying the public funds spent on helping drug addicts and the doctor points out that (with socialized medicine) public funding has also been spent on his obesity-related illnesses.

I think this may be a book written by a bleeding heart liberal for bleeding heart liberals, so as a huge Harry Potter fan and a super bleeding heart liberal, how could I not like it? I also love what I think of as gossipy books: books about the nitty gritty dirty realistic details of everyday ordinary lives--stuff like John Updike or Anne Tyler. Who's cheating on whom? Who seems happy but secretly hates their life? Stuff like that.

Another thing I liked about this book is that the story was balanced between the adult and teen world. I think that may be why the book was overlong. There are like 12 main characters, maybe six adults and six teens (now that I think about it, maybe more--Wikipedia lists 19 characters). As we saw in HP, Rowling is especially gifted at capturing the worldview of young people. In HP it was angsty but in TCV it was downright depressing. Teenagers are crazy. But also compelling. We were all that young and stupid once. Well, maybe not as stupid as Krystal or as sociopathic as Fats or as depressed as Sukhvinder, but maybe more like Andrew, who I thought of as a zitty version of Harry if he'd never been a wizard.

I would NOT recommend this to fans of Harry Potter, unless you also happen to be an adult who doesn't mind reading super depressing stories about how our civilization fails people on so many levels.

Still, I liked it. ( )